After the hurricane...

[scourgeofpiracy]

Most of the crew are dead, and those that aren't are keeping their distance, as far as possible, paddling away on whatever wreckage they can find.

He can't blame them. Nor, he finds, does he have much of a will to paddle himself. Not now.

So, sitting on a plank that was conveniently there, James Norrington floats.

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[bringmethatnpc]

It isn't unusual to see bits of flotsam and jetsam in the water -- driftwood mostly, the odd glass bottle, whatever the sea happens to pick up and carry as the tides ebb and flow. But every man who has been at sea long enough to develop calluses on his hands knows the signs of a wrecked ship, and when a shout goes up from the crow's nest atop the main mast of the Edinburgh, all hands rush to divert course and scour the wreckage for survivors.

Captain Bellamy jams his hat upon his head as he hurries out of his cabin, and his voice booms over the other shouts of the crew. "Here, you lot, reef that topsail and look sharp about it, before t'wind picks up again! Carver, get some of those blankets out! And make ready the longboat!"

He reaches the port-side rail, leaning over -- and cannot stifle an oath when he catches sight of the royal blue coat on a body floating face-down in the water.

"Jesus, Mary and Joseph....A moment later, he is bawling at the crew to get a move on, get that longboat launched and get the survivors aboard it

[scourgeofpiracy]

Norrington doesn't move, doesn't show any sign that he's heard or make any effort to go to the longboat.

His hat is gone, lost somewhere in the chaos, but he still has the rest of his possessions - including, somehow, the black band tying back his hair.

He just sits.

[bringmethatnpc]

The whisperings have already started amongst the crew, as rumours fly about what could have caused this kind of destruction. Sailors are by nature a superstitious lot, and 'witchcraft' is heard as often as 'pirates' or 'Spanish' in the muttered conversations. The Royal Navy build their ships to be hard-fighting and hard-wearing -- it takes a lot to destroy one ship, and the wreckage seems to suggest that more than one ship was lost here.

The longboat cuts through the water, picking up the half-drowned and the mostly-drowned. More than one body has to be pushed aside and left for the sea to claim it, but any man with a breath left in his lungs is hauled aboard the longboat. There is room enough for only a few more before the boat will have to go back and empty its precious cargo onto the Edinburgh's decks, and as the boat turns toward Norrington the young sailor in the prow calls out to him, and extends a hand:

"Sir! Over here, sir!"

[scourgeofpiracy]

He can't ignore it any more, and looks up with dull eyes.

There's a difference between going down with his ship and actively refusing rescue when the ship is gone, though, and so, reluctantly, he starts to paddle his wreckage towards the longboat.